Holidays... it seems like I am constantly trying to work out how to extract the significance of a holiday without losing all the "fun" stuff too. When I was a kid, Christmas was completely about Santa and Easter was the baskets and bunny. I may have been able to tell you that Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ and Easter his resurrection - on second thought, maybe not. I want my kids to grow up with a knowledge, conviction and faith that I didn't have as a child. I want them to contemplate the enormity of these events, not just on the holiday but every day. I don't want to deprive them of fun traditions but I also don't want these things to be the focus of the holiday. I find that it is a tough balance. What 3 year-old wouldn't rather open gifts than read about Jesus's birth? We have decided not to do Santa or the Bunny because they were so much the focus of my childhood. I was sincerely devastated when I found out that Santa didn't exist. I felt bamboozled by adults and I stopped being excited for Christmas once the mystery was gone. In my adulthood, I have learned to appreciate these holidays again for the spiritual implications, family time, and food of course. I'm not sure if we are doing these things "right" but we are trying.
This Easter we stayed home. I had mentioned to the neighborhood kids that we
might do an egg hunt for them (I knew we would be around after Anara's surgery). A
might to the adult-attention-starved neighborhood kid is pretty much a binding contract. Anara ended up having surgery early but we stuck around to keep my word. We hid 70 eggs thinking that this would be quite the hunt. It was done in about 10 minutes (if that long). I couldn't find any way to infuse the resurrection story in this event as they were simply here for the egg hunt and treats. I knew Bible verses in the eggs would be a disappointing find for them and probably become litter, so we stuck with candy and change (thanks Mom). Hopefully our daily interactions with them will afford us more opportunities to talk of our Redeemer. Here are some pictures.
Family photo after church
Silly photo - I panicked and couldn't be silly
Grandma Janet and her grandkids
Hunting
Victoria was so overwhelmed she started bawling
Victoria was so overwhelmed she started bawling
Sabrina and Marlene
Eddie 
2 comments:
I know there is something out there, I think they are called Resurrection Eggs that tie the fun side with the truth of Easter. I'm sure if you Google it you could find loads of info. Come to think of it, Lydia, do/did you have some of these?
I made my own resurrection eggs Easter eve at, what was it? midnight to use with the PreK sunday school class. I ended up with about 18 eggs instead of the traditional 12 because I didn't want to leave out one part of the story.
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